OVER 7000 drivers have been snapped speeding on the M74 as it passes through South Lanarkshire in the last five years – with speeds of up to 109mph being clocked.

A mobile camera is intermittently placed at junction 13 of the M74 at Abington, and 1159 drivers were caught speeding there last year alone.

In the past five years police have issued 7037 fixed penalty notices and a further 315 drivers have been referred to the procurator fiscal, after speeding past the camera.

In 2011 the maximum speed recorded at the site was 108mph and in 2010 it was 109mph.

The Abington camera catches considerably more offenders than the other two mobile speed camera sites in South Lanarkshire.

A camera which is periodically stationed on the A706 south of Forth has caught 46 speeding drivers in the last five years, with 41 given fixed penalty notices and five referred to the procurator fiscal.

The maximum speed recorded at that site was 81mph in 2011 and 85mph in 2010.

Another spot where a mobile camera can be placed is on the B7078 at Blackwood.

Only 15 speeding drivers have been caught there in the past five years, with none recorded last year.

The speed limit there is 30mph and the maximum speed clocked in 2010 was 40mph.

The Advertiser obtained these figures from Strathclyde Police under the Freedom of Information Act.

However police would not reveal the number of people caught speeding at South Lanarkshire’s fixed cameras two of which are on Hillhouse Road, Hamilton, and Stewart Street, Carluke.

In response to our request, police told us that revealing the numbers would indicate how often the fixed cameras were working.

Fixed speed cameras are not always operational, but even when they are not working police hope they act as a deterrent to speeding.

They felt that revealing the number of people caught speeding would indicate how often the cameras are operational and would therefore reduce their effectiveness.

They did not feel the same thing applied to the mobile cameras, as in those cases “a mobile camera van is either at a specific site or not.”